(AUDIO) RFI Interns wrapping up time in West Point

The final day for the two UNL Rural Futures Institute Interns who spent the last two months in West Point is Wednesday. Amber Ross says she and the other intern, Madeleine Schwinghammer, worked with the Cuming County Economic Development Office to form a class. “We’ve been working with Kelly (Gentrup) in the Economic Development Office on a Cuming County Leadership Class, and so we’ve formed a focus group from employers and employees from around the county. And we’ve been working with them to kind of form a class that they think will help them not only professionally, but personally as well.”

Schwinghammer says she and Ross also did a Parks and Rec Assessment, and worked on an Emerald Ash Borer Project. The two also worked on Community Branding with City Administrator Tom Goulette.

Schwinghammer says the two conducted a survey focusing on community needs as part of the parks and rec assessment. “So there were three main categories on our survey. So there were kids and families, and from that category, a couple of the top projects that they were interested in were an improvement to the city pool or a new one. Of course the major thing that was wanted there is the Zero depth entry, which is very nice to have that much accessibility into a pool. Also with that there was a second category, which was for adults. And so from that came that adults want more food, concerts, kind of events in the park that they can just come to and enjoy being in the wilderness.”

Schwinghammer says in addition to the work they’ve done for the community, they’ve also been able to enjoy West Point, and hangout in the park or in the pool, or have dinner with their host people.

Schwinghammer says her future plans include moving back to Minnesota for a couple months before getting married in October and moving to Columbus. Ross has 3 years of school left at UNL.